


the way it's supposed to be

by andthentheybow



Series: of false gods and fake kings and everything in between [1]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Clay | Dream-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Gen, Minecraft IRL, Non-Linear Narrative, does it count as a god complex if you're technically a god, does this count as angst?, i think so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:01:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27393907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andthentheybow/pseuds/andthentheybow
Summary: they tell him he is the villain. fine- he will play the role.in reality he is a god, taking part in this play for his amusement and his amusement only.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Dave | Technoblade, Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Jschlatt (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Wilbur Soot, No Romantic Relationship(s)
Series: of false gods and fake kings and everything in between [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2001208
Comments: 40
Kudos: 512





	the way it's supposed to be

**Author's Note:**

> don't be creepy about content creators, these are my interpretation of their personas, if they're uncomfortable this will be deleted, etc etc
> 
> that being said- i listened to "i'm gonna win" by rob cantor the whole time i was writing this and it's a banger, so. also this was highkey inspired by that one clip from SAD-ist's "the fall" animatic where dream is watching the election so check that out if you haven't already

he isn’t sure why he starts it. maybe because he’s bored. maybe because he’s powerful. maybe both. maybe neither. but he’s started it.

maybe it’s because he wants a change of pace, something a bit more peaceful for once. he’s saved a hundred realms and killed a hundred dragons and changed the schematics of whatever world he’s found himself in time and again. he lets his friends hunt him for sport and he laughs while doing it, and maybe he wants to build something nice with them instead of tearing something else down.

he doesn’t remember how it begins. who it is that he invites first, into this new world that he has created, just to see. what the first building is. how he establishes the rules. the rules are for them, of course, never for him. this is his world; he is the lone god, and he’ll do with it as he likes.

the first distinctive memory of how this world came to be is the peace of returning to it after a manhunt, him and george and sapnap and bad all piling on one sofa in fits of laughter, and thinking that this is home. he has other friends from other worlds that he wants to share this home with, so he invites more and more, and the world blossoms into something beautiful.

of course, where beautiful things root, darkness follows.

:)

they tell him he is the villain. fine- he will play the role.

in reality he is a god, taking part in this play for his amusement and his amusement only. he could crush their rebellion with one fist if he wanted, but he thinks that this will be more fun. so he settles his mask over his face, smile painted daintily, and he lets the play go on.

he is the villain in this story, they told him so, and he acts like it. george and sapnap are behind him, always, laughing as they crash into bed at night. while his friends sleep, he slips into l’manberg, checks their rations, checks on the kids. wilbur knows what he’s doing, but tommy and tubbo are too young for this, brought in by the promises of a false god. he never looks at their plans, because he has been cast as the leading antagonist, and he should not know what they’re thinking ahead of time.

in reality he knows how it ends. he always does. this is his world, and he is the puppetmaster, the playwright, the prophet, the one and only king, the lone god. he knows how it ends and he pretends that he doesn’t. if they knew, they would crow about unfairness and power imbalance and isn’t that why they’re rebelling in the first place? sometimes it’s hard to keep track. even a god has his limits.

he knows he is not the true antagonist, never has been, never will be. schlatt, wilbur- others rise and fall, false gods and emperors and tyrants and manipulators. he is merely watching from the sidelines, playing the parts they assign to him when it’s necessary, but truly remaining neutral in all of it. they call themselves pogtopia and don’t directly ask for his help, but he knows that they’re expecting it, so he provides- ender damn it, does he provide. he gives wilbur tnt and sees the look on tommy’s face, and during the festival he hides the button. manberg lives to see another day. techno blows it all to hell anyways. blood for the blood god.

:)

he lets schlatt back into the world because he knows that’s the way it’s supposed to be. he finds technoblade living in relative peace and feels a bit guilty for dragging him out of it, but that’s the way it’s supposed to be. techno doesn’t seem too upset about it, anyways. the man is a god in his own right, having bested him in duels before, but in his world, there is no blood god. there is only him, and when he invites techno in, techno accepts.

he watches as schlatt is assigned the role of tyrant, techno the role of savior. he knows that both will play their roles exactly as everyone intends. out of anyone in his world, other than him, these two know most about what it’s like to be a god.

george sides with manberg because he’s supposed to. sapnap sides with them because he just wants a little chaos. he wasn’t expecting bad to take sides, but bad has always been the most righteous out of their little team, and he isn’t all that surprised. he knows that bad and eret find pogtopia and leave it well enough alone, so maybe bad isn’t taking sides, after all.

“i stayed out of the war,” bad says at one point with a shrug. “i thought it was unnecessarily violent. this- this is just politics.”

the lone god won’t side with schlatt, even if his friends do. the others don’t want him to be the villain anymore.

:)

eret’s betrayal was something that only he saw coming. he knows that they regret it, they’re still trying to make up for it, with the way they leave resources and offer aid at every opportunity. he knows that the traitors inside manberg- eret, niki, tubbo- have made their own little family the same way wilbur, tommy, and techno have theirs.

pogtopia falls apart. manberg doesn’t. eret is at the center of it all, the king in their castle. they have never once played the role of a false god, only taking what they deserve. he and eret have discussed it many times, how lonely those stone walls get, but it doesn’t bother them. eret may be the only one who knows his true nature, white eyes glowing under cracked and broken sunglasses. the cape and crown grow heavy after a while, but the sunglasses never do.

if they know, they never mention it. he’s grateful for that. he tries his best to subtly get wilbur to trust eret, but the damage was done long before the exile ever occurred. eret settles for taking care of niki and tubbo, making sure that schlatt and quackity don’t find pogtopia, and passing information to him. he knows it all already. he thinks they know this, too.

“you know where they are,” he says to eret one day. “why don’t you go to them?”

“they don’t trust me yet,” eret replies. “i can still help here.”

quackity’s betrayal is slower in comparison to eret’s, but he sees it coming nonetheless. he’s glad that quackity came around, because maybe george will come around, too. maybe that will be enough to talk wilbur out of his madness. but he knows how this is supposed to go. quackity and tommy talk wilbur out of it for another day, at least, and life goes on.

it was never meant to be.

:)

he stays long enough to see the results of the election, and then he takes his leave. he knows how this ends, and he knows how it began, and he doesn’t see a need to be there for every bit in the middle. he tells techno that it’s time and tells sapnap that he’s heading out for a bit and then he goes to find phil.

philza is up in the air when he sees him, worlds away, and he comes down to the ground quickly, wings beating. he lifts the mask off his face and phil grins. he tells him about everything that’s going on and invites him the same way he invited technoblade. phil declines.

“they know i won’t fight their battles for them,” phil says firmly. “thank you. but no.”

later, he goes to phil again, after wilbur’s gone mad and he can see the fear in tommy’s eyes. once again, phil declines. the battles of his sons are their battles, not his.

the third and final time that he goes to phil is after the festival. he watched from above, unseen, as tommy and techno spoke the only language that’s constant across every world, down in what they called the pit. he watched from the shadows, unseen, as niki runs and tubbo screams and techno laughs and laughs and laughs.

phil’s gaze hardens. he makes sure that this world they’re fighting in has respawn, and the lone god of the world reassures him that it does, and he declines again.

he doesn’t go back to phil after that. his sons will fight and die and betray each other, and one day, they will return home and laugh and live and be happy. but for now, the only language they know is violence, and that’s something that phil doesn’t want to get involved in. he respects that. staying out of things is a skill that not even the gods have.

:)

if he is the antagonist, he thinks tommy is the protagonist. tommy is at the heart of the revolution and he’s at the heart of the election. he’s l’manberg’s beating heart, and he’s pogtopia’s beating heart, loud and boisterous and young, too young to be fighting in wars and revolutions and politics.

that doesn’t mean he goes easy on the kid. he stands between tommy and manberg, diamond sword raised. he stands between tommy and wilbur, diamond sword outstretched. he kills tommy in a duel and he takes the discs and he doesn’t feel bad about it.

he’s the villain, after all, and he’s damn good at playing the role.

he overhears them, once, the two kids, talking about running away. they have their discs and each other, and that’s all they’ll ever need. they decide not to, for wilbur, for l’manberg.

he wishes they came to a different decision.

:)

wilbur is manipulative even from the start, and he doesn’t even think the other man realizes he’s doing it. he’s the self-proclaimed leader of the revolution, his son and his friends following in his wake. he convinces children to fight in a war, he mediates the duel instead of taking the kid’s place. tommy and tubbo may be too young to see it, but fundy isn’t, and he’s amused, almost, that wilbur is still surprised by fundy’s betrayal.

when wilbur goes mad, he isn’t surprised. when wilbur asks him for tnt, he isn’t surprised. when wilbur revolts, he isn’t surprised. that’s the way it is, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

wilbur was not supposed to play the role of the villain. he was supposed to be the hero, during the war, but though the lone god doesn’t like to take too much control, some things he will not let slide. he shifts the focus to tommy so that wilbur’s eventual descent into madness will hurt everyone less. he keeps niki hidden when she’s on the run so that schlatt won’t find her, even though wilbur refuses to let her in to pogtopia. he comforts tubbo after the boy dies, before he respawns, claiming that wilbur promised he wouldn’t get hurt.

he knows by now not to make promises he can’t keep, and that’s how he knows that wilbur is a false god. he claims the title of president, ruler, leader, holds it above the heads of others. his beanie is his crown and his trenchcoat is his cape; his kingdom is the stone ravine where he and his brothers lie in wait. if eret and schlatt are the false kings, wilbur and techno are the false gods of this world, scheming to bring an end to things.

there is one true god. there is one true king. he looks down upon every time and every fight and every single thing that happens in his world. he does not choose his roles, like wilbur, like everyone else. he simply takes what he is given, no more, no less.

that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

:)

what he is given is george and sapnap. he could never ask for anything else. 

sometimes he wonders if killing so many dragons makes him a bit like them. looking at his friends, all he can feel is a rush of mine mine mine, mine to protect and defend and care for. he is a dragon and george and sapnap are his treasure hoard. he will do anything for them, cross a thousand seas and a thousand forests, jump across a thousand ravines and save a thousand ends. 

at the end of the day: mask, goggles, and bandana all end up in one pile on the kitchen table, armor discarded in the hallway, laughter filling their home.

at the end of the day: mask, goggles, and bandana are kept on stoic faces, kitchen table covered in maps and battle plans, sleeping in shifts but never far apart.

at the end of the day: mask watches through a glass window in the white house of manberg as goggles and bandana mutter to each other in a corner.

he wishes (ender, he wishes) that they would’ve taken his side. their loyalty to him runs thick and true, but they didn’t think this would be his role this time around. before sapnap chose sides, he talked to george, reported back that george assumed the lone god of the world would stay neutral this time. neutral, or schlatt. because george was behind schlatt. because schlatt was against wilbur, and hadn’t they just spent so much time fighting wilbur?

he is not meant to play the role of the villain for long. he takes pogtopia’s side and tries to ignore the hurt on george’s face. sapnap goes back and forth for a bit, torn between his two best friends, and eventually he picks schlatt because it’s, ultimately, the safer option.

and at the end of the day, sometimes, he allows himself to slip through the walls to check on his two best friends, his treasure. to float through the white house and allow schlatt and quackity and anyone else that might be watching to see him out of the corner of their eyes like a ghost, to make sure that these two are marked with mine mine mine and no one in l’manberg will ever forget it.

:)

he still refuses to call it manberg, even if that is its official name. he got used to the revolution, he supposes, to l’manchildberg. manchildberg doesn’t have the same ring.

schlatt tells him, once, in a peaceful meeting, that he’s gotta start calling it manberg. he levels a glare in the ram’s direction and thinks that the meaning gets across perfectly fine, even under the mask. schlatt may be a president, but he is no god.

:)

schlatt is interesting. at first he thinks of the ram as a false god, taking power and control and land, but he very quickly sees how far that is from the truth. schlatt is like eret, a false king ruling lands that were never his. he may be a false king, but he’s a real president, a real politician. he takes what he wants and doesn’t ask for permission, not even from the lone god of the world himself.

in all honesty, he respects schlatt. he doesn’t respect schlatt’s methods, doesn’t respect the way that tubbo flinches when schlatt moves too quickly and how ruthlessly he ordered them to tear down the walls and the raised taxes on niki and niki alone. but he respects schlatt. he supposes that’s why he lets him back in to the world after banning him. not just because he knows that’s how it’s supposed to be, but because schlatt would have found a way back in whether he liked it or not.

even though quackity betrays him eventually, he can see that for a while, the vice president is firmly behind him. fundy, george, so many others- they’re all firmly behind him. some of them aren’t, some of them change sides, some of them stay. the one consistency is that schlatt’s demeanor never changes. his smile remains on his face, only his eyes darkening dangerously, and his voice remains loud and clear.

he respects that level of control, the poise with which schlatt holds himself. ender knows he could never manage it. despite his neutrality, he was never one for politics. he took the roles and he played them passionately. schlatt keeps the fire burning in his eyes. he let the fire spread until there was nothing left except him, standing victorious in the ruin of a world that could never be. in the end, he is the only thing left standing. long live the one true king, or something like that.

:)

maybe, someday, he’ll reel the fire back in. for someone that’s supposed to be neutral, he does a pretty shit job of it. he lets his voice raise as he screams about white flags and surrender, whoops with joy when they successfully pull off a plan. the beating in his heart when they blow up l’manberg speaks volumes to him, even if george and sapnap are yelling just as loudly.

but truly, if it weren’t for the roles he is given to play, he would remain out of it. he might favor certain sides, gods always do, but he would watch from his tower and accept that that’s how it’s supposed to be.

but gods cannot stay out of war, especially when they’re the only god in the world. and besides, it amuses him, a little bit. he enjoys the thrill of the fight and the rush of negotiations and the pain of an arrow in the side. if he didn’t like it, he wouldn’t do it. simple as that.

but he likes it. so he puts on his armor and his mask, and when they pray to him, he answers.

:)

they may not like his answers, but he answers. sometimes they may not even know he’s there. most of the time they probably don’t know it’s him they’re praying to. but he’s the god of this world, not the ender dragon, not schlatt or techno or wilbur or anybody else. there is only him and his mask and his diamond axe, ready to answer whatever call they send him.

and sometimes, sometimes they do know. sometimes they cry out, his name directly, and he comes. he comes and he sees eret, crown abandoned on the ground, sunglasses askew and glowing with the light of the flame. eret’s holding niki and she’s screaming, tears running down her face, and fundy’s got a torch in his hands and the l’manberg flag is on fire.

he was exploring. he didn’t want to see what was happening, even though he knew what it was. he knew the walls were being torn down. that didn’t mean he wanted to be there for it.

knowing that the flag would burn down and seeing it actually happen are two very different experiences. knowing that fundy would be the one to do it and seeing the fire in the fox’s eyes are two very different experiences. he’s filled with a righteous sort of anger, almost, at how eret holds niki so gently and how she screams so powerfully, but nowhere in his person can he find it in himself to blame fundy.

fundy, wilbur’s son. who was pushed to the side throughout the entire war for independence, wilbur focusing his energy on tommy, tommy, always tommy. fundy, who was now being given a chance to shine, a chance to burn, and who was taking that opportunity. fundy, who knew about his father’s descending madness, who knew about the discs and the war and maybe even eret’s betrayal. he knew and knew and knew and wilbur was never focused on his own son.

so yeah, he can’t blame fundy. ender, if he was in the fox’s position, he probably would’ve done the same thing.

but that doesn’t mean that hearing niki screaming doesn’t hurt.

:)

they hurt. they all hurt so, so bad.

he wishes there’s something he could do to numb their pain, but never once have they given him the role of healer. he is the strategist and the warmonger and the oppressor, the antihero and the king and the mystery. he cannot take their pain from them.

he can sign treaties with them, discs for autonomy, listen to them celebrate. sapnap is disappointed, hoping for a bloodier end to the war. george asks him why he did it, knows damn well they could’ve conquered l’manberg and quelled the revolution and lost nothing from it.

“they’re kids,” is his reply, and he thinks george understands.

he blows up l’manberg. he gives wilbur the tnt to do it again. explosions have always been intriguing to him, a sight to behold, something powerful and dangerous and beautiful if you stand very, very far away, and don’t have any stake in whatever it is that’s being blown-up.

he hides the button. maybe he sees too much of himself in tommy, desperate to save what he loves. he’s a god; he has the power to do it. tommy doesn’t.

he’s not supposed to interfere the way he does in the tunnels, when tommy and quackity are screaming at wilbur to leave, let it be, if he takes down manberg he’s taking them down with it. they convince him all on their own, brilliant little bastards they are, and then wilbur puts the button back up.

and he listens to the man sing that damn song, and he knows that this is the end, this is the end, this is the end, and for the first and last time, he interferes in the way that only a god can. wilbur will leave the button and leave the tunnels and rejoin tommy and quackity above ground. he’ll return to pogtopia and manberg will stand for another day. the lone god wills it to be so, and it is.

it is long after wilbur leaves that he allows himself to break down. this isn’t how it’s supposed to be. manberg should be dust, but he could not see it end just yet. maybe, just maybe, he is a little less neutral than he thought.

this isn’t how it’s supposed to be. it’s supposed to be peaceful. there isn’t supposed to be war. there isn’t supposed to be the looming threat of annihilation around every corner. he isn’t supposed to have to interfere at the last minute because no, he knows how it is supposed to be, but this is still his world, ender damn it. he is the playwright. he plays the roles, he tells the story.

he leaves the tunnels a while later, waiting, watching. there is no one in sight, not pogtopia or manberg or his own city. he considers sealing off the tunnel and decides against it.

he turns to go home. their fates are in their own hands now.

:)

their fates have always been in their own hands, really. he plays his tune and they dance away, he jumps in and out of the narrative and life goes on.

pogtopia is the prime example of that. they could have given up so, so easily, but instead they found a ravine and technoblade and tunnels that led back to their lost city. they mine and they dig and they never surrender. wilbur crows about being the bad guys and tommy does not give up. he does not give in.

the lone god checks on them, like he did during the war. he makes sure that the kids are eating and not in too much pain. he is not given the role of caretaker, but the lone god watches from the shadows, just like gods always do.

his favorite part is the moments of wilbur’s lucidity, when the three boys of the wild wild woods are talking about the way things will be. “someday they will scream our stories from the rooftops instead of whispering them in the streets,” wilbur tells his brothers, and the lone god takes that to heart.

:)

he isn’t sure why he ends it. that’s the one thing he doesn’t know. 

he doesn’t remember how or why he started this world, and he doesn’t know how or why he’ll end it. he knows he’ll end it, one day, and they’ll all move on to other worlds, other battles. 

but for now, he chooses to live in the good moments that he’s been given. when there is no war, no revolution, no election, no exile. when there is only peace, laughter, joy, light. when he and george and sapnap and bad all pile onto one couch, fresh out of a trip to another world of their creation. when the soft tones of mellohi play in the background as the sun sets and tommy and tubbo watch from a bench. when eret and fundy and wilbur stream into niki’s bakery, laughing, fresh plate of chocolate chip cookies already prepared for them. when a hot dog caravan was only a hot dog caravan, when there was no festival and no debate, no duel and no death. no explosions. no tnt. just peace.

he started it with the intent of peace. he won’t end it until he reaches that goal. until there’s peace again. until wrongs have been righted.

he will not play any role but his own. he is the lone god of this world, the overseer, the caretaker. he is the puppetmaster, the playwright, the prophet. he is everywhere and everywhen, and he will not let his world die until it finds peace.

that’s the way it’s supposed to be, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> comments/kudos/etc make my day :)


End file.
